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Cameroon journalist Mim Mefo freed from jail

Sunday November 11 2018
Mimi

Cameroon’s Equinoxe television and radio presenter Mimi Mefo, FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By NDI EUGENE NDI

Cameroonian journalist Mimi Mefo has been released from the dreaded New Bell central prison in the commercial capital Douala.

The Equinoxe television and radio presenter was set free on Saturday after she was detained for alleged dissemination of fake news, likely to harm public authorities or national cohesion.

Ms Mefo was transferred to the dreaded New Bell jail late Wednesday on the orders of a state prosecutor at the Douala military tribunal.

Equinoxe TV showed footages of the journalist being accompanied home by her lawyer and joyous colleagues, taking selfies with her as she arrived.

A gesture

A statement attributed to the Cameroon military spokesperson, Col Didier Badjeck, said President Paul Biya ordered the journalist’s release and a halt to the prosecution “in a gesture of magnanimity”.

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“This does not mean, far from it, that this journalist is innocent, far from it," the statement said further.

The military state prosecutor charged Ms Mefo over a social media report in which she said the Cameroonian soldiers were responsible for the death of an American missionary who was shot in the head amid fighting between armed separatists and soldiers in the crisis-hit Northwest region.

Without fear

The government said bullets that killed the US Baptist missionary came from a 12-gauge weapon which is used by the secessionist terrorists operating in the English speaking Northwest and Southwest regions.

Ms Mefo is due to appear at the military court in Douala on Monday to answer to her charges.

Individuals and groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Cameroon Journalists Trade Union (SNJC) and the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ), had condemned the detention and called on authorities to immediately free her and allow her to do her job without fear.

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